Pages

6 Mar 2013

An unexpected change of plan!!

After a leisurely morning in
Listvyanka, a chance perusal of our passports by Josi at 5pm revealed an
alarming discovery. We had been diligent
about planning our entry dates into each country based on the start dates of
our visas, although a technicality was to catch us out with our departure. Our Russian visas had been issued for only 28
days instead of the usual 30 (due to the short February month), and our visa
expiry was now 7 hours away! The
countdown until we became fugitives had begun…

A quick Google search of the
consequences of overstaying our visas gave us no encouragement, listing heavy
fines, indefinite detention, relocation to Moscow for exit visa processing
and/or imprisonment all listed as possible outcomes. Ten minutes later we were in a taxi, heading
for Irkutsk Airport, with no idea whether any flights were leaving that day or
where they would be going. But
nonetheless hopeful to somehow jump the border from there.

Oddly, the domestic terminal at
Irkutsk is an impressive shiny building with an array of shops, whereas the
international terminal is in a small annexe in need of TLC. The two battered propeller planes panting
exhaustedly on the runway did nothing to inspire confidence, looking like two stray dogs that had just been interrupted from their scrapping. But miraculously the ticket office was open,
although unhelpfully staffed by a woman who spoke no English and made no effort
to understand our smattering of Russian.

Looking at the departure board, the
only flight this side of midnight was to Magadan – a remote Siberian outpost
1,500 miles deeper into what was rapidly becoming enemy territory. The flight we really wanted was to
Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, but that wasn't leaving until 10pm the next day by
which point the prospect of making small talk in Vladivostok prison would be
looming all too imminent.

A quick call to the UK Consul
confirmed that we should make every effort to get our exit stamp before
midnight. Our best bet was a flight to
Beijing, due to depart at 2am, with check-in opening at 11.15pm. And so, at 11.20pm we were stamped out of Russia and
allowed into the departures lounge, awaiting the arrival of what turned out to
be an impressive modern airbus. That
concluded a second consecutive day of anxiety (See Lake Baikal post).

Beijing airport is a masterpiece of
engineering, and vast. Built for the
Olympics in 2008, it is the face of modern China, but even the immigration
officer admitted that she thought it was too big. It is also an interesting juxtaposition of
modern architecture and traditional habits – we noticed how the immaculately
polished floor doubled as a receptacle for the copious and vigorous spitting of
some of the older passengers. Had we
known before leaving Irkutsk about Beijing’s generous 72 hour visa-free transit
scheme, we would have tried to arrive with the requisite onward flights already
booked. But in the absence of those, we
unfortunately had no other choice but to use the Chinese Visa’s we had
previously obtained in the UK.

5 hours
later we were back in the air, on-board a Mongolian Airline flight to
Ulaanbaatar, sadly with our precious single entry Chinese visa’s now stamped
and null & void. We felt
simultaneously annoyed at the oversight, but relieved at the outcome.